Relationship Quality in the Context of Computer-Mediated Communication - A social constructionist approach

This paper contributes to possible answers to the question: What are the effects of computermediated communication on relationship qualities in organizations? To answer this question without oversimplifying the phenomena an adequate research methodology has to be found. First, the interrelationship between computer-mediated communication (CMC) and relationship quality is reviewed. CMC-theory will be described from three main perspectives and the risks and chances for relationship quality will be shown. The review indicates that most studies in the field are founded on a positivistic basis. Relationships are treated as static dyads neglecting contextual factors. Thus, the insight into relational processes in computerized environments remains limited. As an alternative a research methodology based on the epistemological stance of social constructionism is proposed. It will be explained, how the researchers’ view can be broadened by applying the method of the ‘narrative interview’ in practice based studies in computer-mediated contexts. In the concluding part, the contribution of this approach to research and practice will be discussed.Computer-mediated communication, relationship quality, social constructionism

Mixing methods in innovation research: studying the process-culture-link in innovation management

"Der Literatur zum Innovationsmanagement kann man unschwer zwei populäre Trends entnehmen. Der eine beruht auf der Annahme, dass Innovation ein linearer Prozess sei, der entsprechend gemanagt werden könne. Der zweite Trend unterstreicht, dass eine entsprechende Kultur die Innovationsfähigkeit von Unternehmen beflügelt. Diese beiden Ansätze widersprechen sich zum Teil. Der konkrete Zusammenhang zwischen Innovationskultur und Innovationsprozess wird in der Literatur jedoch kaum beschrieben, so bereits eine Studie von Shona Brown und Kathleen Eisenhardt (1995). Daher untersuchten wir diese Schnittstelle anhand einer Einzelfallstudie zu einem Innovationsprojekt in einer Schweizer Unternehmung aus der Telekommunikationsindustrie. Die Datenerhebung beruhte auf einem Methodenmix aus problemzentrierten Interviews, Strukturanalysen und Inhaltsanalysen und dauerte etwa ein Jahr. Dies ergab eine Themenlandschaft zur Innovationsdynamik innerhalb des Unternehmens. Unter anderem zeigen unsere Ergebnisse, dass Innovationsmanager/innen sich mit einem dynamischen Rollenmodell arrangieren müssen, um Innovationen nicht nur aus der Traufe zu heben, sondern auch durchzusetzen und an den Markt zu bringen." (Autorenreferat)"Two trends in innovation management have influenced the basic idea of this paper. The first trend shows increased attempts by managers to utilize linear innovation processes derived from literature and from practice. The second trend is an increasing acceptance of the dynamics created in an 'innovation culture', as being one of the key drivers of innovation. Both approaches partially contrast each other. Researching the literature in more detail, the authors found that studies explaining the link between innovation culture and innovation project management are rare. Indeed there is a study by Shona Brown and Kathleen Eisenhardt (1995) which gives an excellent overview of innovation management research, but again the issue of 'culture' was lacking. This missing link between innovation process design and innovation culture at the firm-level provides the theoretical framework of this paper. Behind the scenes of innovation management studies, the authors realized a methodological gap existed between the research of innovation cultures and their impact upon an organization's innovation processes. Thus, they applied a methodological mix of problem-centered interviews, structural analyses, and context analyses to study the phenomenon. They conducted an interview-based single case study in a Swiss telecommunications company. From these methodologies we created a themed landscape comprising relational topics of the innovation dynamics within an innovation project in the company (one year duration) and briefly described each topic. The main finding in our study is the dynamic role-model that innovation managers in large service firms have to apply to succeed in their innovation management work. Thus, their methodological mix proved to be helpful, although some weaknesses remain to be solved in the future." (author's abstract

Mixing Methods in Innovation Research: Studying the Process-Culture-Link in Innovation Management

Dos tendencias sobre la gestión de la innovación han influido este artículo. La primera muestra los intentos crecientes de los gerentes para utilizar procesos de innovación lineal derivados de la literatura y de la práctica. La segunda tendencia es una aceptación creciente de las dinámicas creadas en una "cultura de innovación", como uno de los principales conductores de la innovación. Cada enfoque contrasta parcialmente con el otro. Investigando la literatura con mayor detenimiento, encontramos que son pocos los estudios que explican el vínculo entre cultura innovadora y gestión de proyectos innovadores. Sin embargo, hay un estudio desarrollado por Shona BROWN and Kathleen EISENHARDT (1995) que ofrece una excelente visión general sobre la investigación en gestión de la innovación, pero nuevamente, el tema de la "cultura" está ausente. La carencia de vínculo entre el diseño del proceso de innovación y la cultura de la innovación a nivel empresa provee el marco teórico para este artículo. Detrás de la escena de los estudios de gestión de la innovación, encontramos que existía un salto metodológico entre la investigación de culturas de innovación y su impacto sobre los procesos de innovación organizacional. Así, aplicamos una combinación metodológica de entrevistas centradas en el problema, análisis estructurales, y análisis del contexto para estudiar el fenómeno. Realizamos un estudio de caso, basado en entrevistas, en una empresa suiza de telecomunicaciones. Desde estas metodologías creamos un entorno temático abarcando temas relacionados a las dinámicas de innovación, al interior de un proyecto de innovación en la compañía (de un año de duración), y describimos brevemente cada tema. El principal hallazgo de nuestro trabajo es el modelo de rol dinámico que los gerentes de la innovación de grandes empresas de servicios deben aplicar para tener éxito en su trabajo de gestión de la innovación. De esta manera, nuestra combinación metodológica probó ser útil, aunque algunas debilidades han de ser resueltas en el futuro. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs1003134Der Literatur zum Innovationsmanagement kann man unschwer zwei populäre Trends entnehmen. Der eine beruht auf der Annahme, dass Innovation ein linearer Prozess sei, der entsprechend gemanagt werden könne. Der zweite Trend unterstreicht, dass eine entsprechende Kultur die Innovationsfähigkeit von Unternehmen beflügelt. Diese beiden Ansätze widersprechen sich zum Teil. Der konkrete Zusammenhang zwischen Innovationskultur und Innovationsprozess wird in der Literatur jedoch kaum beschrieben, so bereits eine Studie von Shona BROWN und Kathleen EISENHARDT (1995). Daher untersuchten wir diese Schnittstelle anhand einer Einzelfallstudie zu einem Innovationsprojekt in einer Schweizer Unternehmung aus der Telekommunikationsindustrie. Die Datenerhebung beruhte auf einem Methodenmix aus problemzentrierten Interviews, Strukturanalysen und Inhaltsanalysen und dauerte etwa ein Jahr. Dies ergab eine Themenlandschaft zur Innovationsdynamik innerhalb des Unternehmens. Unter anderem zeigen unsere Ergebnisse, dass Innovationsmanager/innen sich mit einem dynamischen Rollenmodell arrangieren müssen, um Innovationen nicht nur aus der Traufe zu heben, sondern auch durchzusetzen und an den Markt zu bringen. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs1003134Two trends in innovation management have influenced the basic idea of this paper. The first trend shows increased attempts by managers to utilize linear innovation processes derived from literature and from practice. The second trend is an increasing acceptance of the dynamics created in an "innovation culture," as being one of the key drivers of innovation. Both approaches partially contrast each other. Researching the literature in more detail, we found that studies explaining the link between innovation culture and innovation project management are rare. Indeed there is a study by Shona BROWN and Kathleen EISENHARDT (1995) which gives an excellent overview of innovation management research, but again the issue of "culture" was lacking. This missing link between innovation process design and innovation culture at the firm-level provides the theoretical framework of this paper. Behind the scenes of innovation management studies, we realized a methodological gap existed between the research of innovation cultures and their impact upon an organization's innovation processes. Thus, we applied a methodological mix of problem-centered interviews, structural analyses, and context analyses to study the phenomenon. We conducted an interview-based single case study in a Swiss telecommunications company. From these methodologies we created a themed landscape comprising relational topics of the innovation dynamics within an innovation project in the company (one year duration) and briefly described each topic. The main finding in our study is the dynamic role-model that innovation managers in large service firms have to apply to succeed in their innovation management work. Thus, our methodological mix proved to be helpful, although some weaknesses remain to be solved in the future. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs100313

Bright, excellent, ignored: the contribution of Luhmann's system theory and its problem of non-connectivity to academic management research

"Niklas Luhmann's theory has been largely ignored in organization studies, compared to other sociological approaches like Weick's sensemaking, Giddens' structuration theory, or Latour's Actor-Network Theory. While having being applied on a number of fields, such as philosophy, sociology, theology, law and political sciences, application of Luhmann's theory is still limited in organization studies (e.g. Munro 2010). In this paper, the authors attempt to explain the reasons of this ignorance and limited use, focusing on Luhmann's writing style, but also on the theoretical and empirical limitations his theory poses. Believing that Luhmann's theory holds great potential to be applied to organizational studies and explain organizational phenomena, they then discuss how it could contribute to radically changing the conventional ways of studying and analyzing organizational phenomena, fostering at the same time, the debate about the value of his theory. The authors analyze organizations as communicative processes that continuously produce and reproduce themselves to create knowledge, make decisions, structure expectations, and redefine organizational boundaries. Finally, they address the empirical challenges of applying Luhmann's theory on organization studies." (author's abstract

One-loop vertex integrals in heavy-particle effective theories

We give a complete analytical computation of three-point one-loop integrals with one heavy propagator, up to the third tensor rank, for arbitrary values of external momenta and masses.Comment: 10 pages, Latex, to appear in J. Phys.

Neutrinos, Axions and Conformal Symmetry

We demonstrate that radiative breaking of conformal symmetry (and simultaneously electroweak symmetry) in the Standard Model with right-chiral neutrinos and a minimally enlarged scalar sector induces spontaneous breaking of lepton number symmetry, which naturally gives rise to an axion-like particle with some unusual features. The couplings of this `axion' to Standard Model particles, in particular photons and gluons, are entirely determined (and computable) via the conformal anomaly, and their smallness turns out to be directly related to the smallness of the masses of light neutrinos.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures, expanded version, to be published in EPJ

The isospin symmetry breaking effects in Ke4K_{e4} decays

The Fermi-Watson theorem is generalized to the case of two coupled channels with different masses and applied to final state interaction in $K_{e4}$ decays. The impact of considered effect on the phase of the $\pi\pi$ scattering is estimated and shown that it can be crucial for scattering lengths extraction from experimental data on $K_{e4}$ decays

Broadband Geodesic Pulses for Three Spin Systems: Time-Optimal Realization of Effective Trilinear Coupling Terms and Indirect SWAP Gates

Broadband implementations of time-optimal geodesic pulse elements are introduced for the efficient creation of effective trilinear coupling terms for spin systems consisting of three weakly coupled spins 1/2. Based on these pulse elements, the time-optimal implementation of indirect SWAP operations is demonstrated experimentally. The duration of indirect SWAP gates based on broadband geodesic sequence is reduced by 42.3% compared to conventional approaches.Comment: 22 pages, incl. 8 figure

On the Riemann Tensor in Double Field Theory

Double field theory provides T-duality covariant generalized tensors that are natural extensions of the scalar and Ricci curvatures of Riemannian geometry. We search for a similar extension of the Riemann curvature tensor by developing a geometry based on the generalized metric and the dilaton. We find a duality covariant Riemann tensor whose contractions give the Ricci and scalar curvatures, but that is not fully determined in terms of the physical fields. This suggests that \alpha' corrections to the effective action require \alpha' corrections to T-duality transformations and/or generalized diffeomorphisms. Further evidence to this effect is found by an additional computation that shows that there is no T-duality invariant four-derivative object built from the generalized metric and the dilaton that reduces to the square of the Riemann tensor.Comment: 36 pages, v2: minor changes, ref. added, v3: appendix on frame formalism added, version to appear in JHE

Dimensional crossover in a spin liquid to helimagnet quantum phase transition

Neutron scattering is used to study magnetic field induced ordering in the quasi-1D quantum spin-tube compound Sul--Cu$_2$Cl$_4$ that in zero field has a non-magnetic spin-liquid ground state. The experiments reveal an incommensurate chiral high-field phase stabilized by a geometric frustration of the magnetic interactions. The measured critical exponents $\beta\approx0.235$ and $\nu\approx0.34$ at $H_c\approx3.7$ T point to an unusual sub-critical scaling regime and may reflect the chiral nature of the quantum critical point.Comment: 4 page